Rafael Nadal lashed out at French Open organizers after bearing
Martin Klizan 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the third round of the French
Open on Friday.
Nadal’s match was originally scheduled to be the third match on Court
Suzanne Lenglen on Thursday but was postponed after rain washed out
most of the day’s play, meaning the seven-time French Open champion will
have to play six matches in 10 days to win the title.
“I think everybody knows in this room that the schedule of [Thursday]
was wrong,” Nadal told reporters after the win. “That’s the real thing.
I don’t know if the director of the tournament, supervisors, guys who
take the positions, they take a bad position two days ago, because when
you make the schedule at 7 in the [evening], not 11 in the morning, you
know which weather predictions you have for the next days.”
Nadal was unhappy that his second-round match was scheduled third
after a men’s and women’s match, while his third-round opponent, Fabio
Fognini, was scheduled second after a women’s match on another court.
The scheduling decision meant Nadal’s match was more likely to be
postponed due to rain as opposed to Fognini’s. As it happened, he was
right. Fognini was able to get on court and win his match on Thursday
and have a day of rest while Nadal was forced to play his second round
Friday.
“That’s not fair,” he said. “And today I was playing almost three
hours on court, and my opponent was watching the TV in the locker
room. So if you [tell] me that’s fair, I say that’s not fair.”
“Because when you know that it’s going to be sunny, it’s fair,” Nadal
told Spanish press. “But when you know it’s going to possibly rain, you
cannot make a schedule thinking that one match could be postponed by
three hours; that chances are that maybe even the match will not be
played.”
Nadal said organizers told him they had to schedule Fognini’s match
against Lukas Rosol early because Rosol was in doubles later in the day.
“ I am sorry, but that’s a joke,” said Nadal, who was upset by Rosol
in the Wimbledon second round last year. “You have one more week to play
doubles if you want to play doubles. Why do you want to protect the
player who has to play doubles? So I’m going to write myself on the
doubles draw then and I have the priority to play? That’s not the right
excuse to make a schedule like this.
“I don’t want to keep talking, because it seems like I am the bad guy
saying that, but that’s the real thing, and everybody here knows that’s
not right.”
Nadal will play No. 27 seed Fognini, a quarterfinalist in 2011, on Saturday.